Audio popping issue

[Denji]

My audio's just been... wonky.

Occasionally certain sounds won't play (like when a critical engagement ends in Bozja/Zadnor) or they'll be weirdly muffled like I have 5.1 surround sound going through headphones. Certain dungeons are worse than others with The Dusk Vigil being the worst where I probably couldn't hear half the sounds play.

[OmniusOmnium]

So I have discovered that if I have my second screen on, particularly if it is playing a video or taxing the GPU/CPU the stuttering will be much worse. With my 2nd screen completely disabled in my graphics driver settings I have seen enough of an improvement that the game is now playable. There is no longer any stuttering in cutscenes or dungeons. There is still some stuttering and all around bad quality audio in 8-man and 24-man content, with alliance raids being the worst by a significant margin. As some others have said, rapidly twisting the camera in the opposite direction of the boss seems to "reset" the sound and alleviate the problems, although only temporarily.

Another thing which has made it more bearable is to turn the master volume almost all the way down, I think I settled on 49 in the end. This won't actually solve the problem, but it does make it much less noticeable. Once I turned the master down I fiddled with the other volumes as well until I settled on the most comfortable audio experience. Obviously this will differ depending on personal taste and hardware. But my settings are:

Listening Position: 100
Master: 49
BGM: 100
Sound Effects: 40
Voice: 100
System Sounds: 32
Ambient Sounds: 32 (this one seems to be of particular importance and needs to be low or OFF).
Performance: 100 (though it makes no difference unless you're listening to a bard).

Self: 100
Party: 50
Other PCs: 26

Wireless Controller Settings: Muted and "none" selected.

Equalizer Mode: Standard (Playing around with this can have a significant effect)

Spatial Audio: OFF (I tried with it on and it sounds absolutely terrible).

It should also be known that I am playing my sound via my GPU HDMI cable to my TV (NOT via a headset or headphones AUX connector).

My windows sound settings are as follows:
All enhancements DISABLED.
Default Format: 24bit 48000hz (Studio Quality)
ALL other audio input and output devices DISABLED (not just unplugged) in windows sound settings.
Windows Spatial Surround: OFF
Any other software/hardware based enhancements or apps like realtek DISABLED.

Windows Master Volume: Maximum of 80%
All other audio outputs in the windows volume mixer MUTED, this includes "system sounds" and absolutely any other app or program showing up in there, the only thing that should be unmuted and set at less than 80% volume is Final Fantasy XIV and the Master Output itself.

Any other audio crap that may interfere with the signal at any point DISABLED (In my case this was audio settings within the TV itself such as loudness equalization or surround sound etc.

As I say, none of these things will eliminate the problem, but they may make it slightly more bearable for you. And I know "turning down the volume" isn't a great solution, but it makes a difference in my opinion and is plenty loud enough with the settings set to cautious levels. And if you can do without it, muting other players spells completely and muting the ambient sound setting will make a significant difference in my opinion. Finally, the sound effects are heavily impacted in comparison to the BGM so for me turning the BGM up to max and the effects as low as I can while still enjoying the game made some difference as the music seems mostly unaffected so can distract from the bad effects.

Anyway, hope this helps someone else.

[minopoki]

my fear is they will not fix this problem in the next patch, because i have not seen them specify the problem that we are having.

That's what I am afraid of too.
I can already see they releasing the next patch with some random change to the audio driver in attempt to fix the issue, but it end up working only for a restricted number of lucky players…

[Denji]

So I have discovered that if I have my second screen on, particularly if it is playing a video or taxing the GPU/CPU the stuttering will be much worse.

This isn't my experience. I've played bozja/zadnor with instances filled with the max number of people and only the "you won" music after a CE doesn't play, but then 4-player dungeons will have 90% of the audio messed up in some way. I (personally, of course. as this is only a supposition) think there's something else going on.

[AsheStrachan]

I just would like to know about if they are planning on adding more free sub time,as I haven't been able to play since EW early access game out

[Wetton]

Same issue with the audio, i try it with the settings from AsheStrachan, when i got ingame after 5 hours.

[OneIlmPunch]

So my fix is defunct. Capping fps at 30 worked for a day or two, now the audio popping is back and it's even worse. The more players or monsters using spells/abilities the louder and more horrible the popping becomes. I've since put my fps cap back to 60 since it isn't working anymore.

[Darneltia]

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with sound issues on Final Fantasy XIV. We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter and ask that you try again at a later time to see if the issue persists along with keeping an eye out on the Lodestone website when further updates will become available.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support forums!

[AsheStrachan]

Greetings fellow Eorzean,

We apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with sound issues on Final Fantasy XIV. We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...d6d790145bcf41

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter and ask that you try again at a later time to see if the issue persists along with keeping an eye out on the Lodestone website when further updates will become available.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support forums!

We finally got some info people!

[minopoki]

We have compiled a list of current issues with the game including sound related ones here which might be related to the same problem (i.e. the sound driver for the game itself):

Hello Darneltia, I'm not sure how much information the moderators have in regards to development issues, but if the problem is in the sound driver for the game itself, couldn't this problem be solved if it was only given us an option to switch drivers to an old version in which this error did not occur?
Just like we now have the option to switch from DirectX 11 to DirectX 9, couldn't they give us an option to switch from 6.0 sound driver to 5.5 sound driver?